


True Colors

by terrawrites



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Breakup, Kidnapping, Other, Post-Episode: s02e09 Darkest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 20:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16840156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terrawrites/pseuds/terrawrites
Summary: Anonymous wanted “I never want to even hear your name during my life anymore.” With Tigress!Artemis while she’s undercover with Kaldur





	True Colors

You groaned as you regained consciousness. The side of your head still throbbed from where you had been hit, and your vision was blurry and shifting in and out of focus as you tried to take in your surroundings. Vague nausea pulled at your insides as you moved your head around the room. You may have felt terrible, but even you could recognize the danger you were in, despite what was most likely a concussion still clouding your mind.

You took a few breaths to steady yourself and worked through your mental checklist. It was something Artemis had taught you should you ever find yourself in a situation such as this. Thinking of your lost lover sent a pang through your heart, but you only let yourself falter for a moment. You may not have been a hero like she had, but you were not going to let yourself fall victim to despair over her memory. She wouldn’t want you to. You worked your way down from your head to your feet, checking over your body. You were already aware of the dull pounding inside your skull, so you moved onwards. Your arms were bound behind you, the restraints feeling more like specialized metal cuffs. Looking down at your feet you could see they were similarly bound.

You were effectively immobilized, as no amount of struggling allowed for any possible give. The restraints looked suspiciously high-grade for any kind of common thug to use, so you ruled out the possibility that it was some low-grade street criminals. You mentally berated yourself as you looked around the small room you were being held in for any additional clues.

The walls were metallic as well as the floor, only one door leading in and out of the room which looked to be heavily fortified. There were no windows anywhere, and only a small vent on the ceiling and a camera in the corner broke the otherwise uniform blank walls all around you. With a sigh, you concluded that this wasn’t so much of a “small room” as it was a cell. You were being held prisoner by unknown assailants on what you think might have been a ship of some sort, if the low hum you could hear through the metal was indeed the sound of engines.

You sighed as you pulled yourself up into a sitting position, resting your chin on your knees. The last thing you remembered before waking up here, was looking at the holo-memorial of Artemis in the Mountain before someone snuck up behind you and knocked you unconscious. You knew that Artemis had been a hero for a time, that’s how the two of you had even met. She had stopped a few would-be muggers in Star City when you were fifteen. You had been immediately enraptured by the blonde archer, and it seemed like she had felt the same.

The two of you would meet occasionally over the next couple years until you had moved to Gotham with your family and had been enrolled in Gotham Academy. That had been the first time you had ever met her as Artemis, not that you would know that until months later. The friendship you had struck with Artemis was immediate, and you felt drawn to her in a way that you hadn’t felt with others. You weren’t surprised when you felt your feelings morph into that of a crush, and eventually love, but you were nervous. Nervous that maybe she didn’t feel the same way about you. Little did you know that as you had fallen for her, she had too fallen for you. So the two of you danced around the subject, oblivious to the true feelings of the other.

However, when the two of you were walking back to your home and got pulled into an alley, surrounded by the twisted faces of Gotham’s criminal gangs, you saw your friend jump into action, moves familiar in a way that allowed you to connect the pieces. When they had been dealt with, and she turned to you with a nervous smile, you didn’t think about what you were about to do and acted on instinct. You pressed your lips against hers and melted when she reciprocated.

She explained everything to you that night in your room, and you nodded along in understanding. From then on, the two of you began your relationship, and every moment felt like a dream that you didn’t want to ever wake up from. It had its ups and downs yes, but the two of you cared deeply about one another, and so you were always able to work it out. But as her missions seemed to grow ever more dangerous, leaving you awake for nights on end, you brought up the idea of her retiring. That had sparked the biggest fight between the two of you yet. You understood her reasoning for becoming a hero, but you tried to make her hear your view, and that you cared too much about her to see her come home night after night with bruises and cuts and broken bones. It was only after a mission had almost cost her life, a month spent in the hospital, that she finally relented and agreed that it was time for her to hang up the bow and settle down for a life with you.

When you had come home one day after class years later and saw her sitting at the kitchen table with her old bow in front of her, you felt the dread rising. She explained that Dick had called her inf or her help on a mission. She didn’t have to say anything else for you to know that she had already accepted. That night sparked the second biggest fight between the two of you. Deep down you think you always understood that she could never truly stop, but you had wanted to hope that she would for you. Words were exchanged, things were said that hurt the both of you, and in the end, she left you sitting there in your shared home, the room feeling so empty and cold in the wake of your argument.

Your heart had shattered when Dick had shown up at your door, eyes downcast and laden with regret. You knew without him even saying a word. You had collapsed in the doorway, grief racking your body with the realization that she was gone. Dick had done whatever he could to offer you some comfort during that time, and you were allowed into the mountain to visit her memorial whenever you wanted. You had been there a few times when you and Artemis were younger, and you felt a mix of emotions at being back now, especially under these circumstances. That was why you were at the Mountain in the first place, stopping by once every few days to visit the memorial and check up with some of the team who were close to the both of you.

You were pulled out of your memories when you heard footsteps approaching your door. You wiped at your eyes, getting rid of the few tears that had gathered there in the meantime. The door swung open and your eyes narrowed at the woman who entered, the door closing behind her. You recognized her from overhearing one of the Team’s briefings. Tigress.

There were a few moments of silence where you two just stared at one another. Your eyes were cold, and hers seemed to be looking you over with an emotion that you couldn’t read. “How are you feeling?” Her voice was soft, and for a moment the way she said it sounded familiar.

You shook your head to clear out your ridiculous thoughts before it could make your situation any worse. “Why would you care?” You spat. Your voice was icy, even for you.

She seemed taken aback at your tone, surprised at your words, and then seemed to recollect herself. “Fine, we can play this the hard way then. I need information on the Team, and you’re going to tell me everything you know about them.”

You scoffed. “What makes you think I know anything? I’m just a civilian.”

“True but we know that you were… intimate with one of the heroes known as Artemis. Your relationship with her allowed you into their base and allowed you to get close with some of the other members. We will get that information one way or another, but you’ll make it a lot easier on yourself if you come clean now.”

You spat at her. “I’d sooner die.”

She smirked, and if you didn’t think it was the concussion messing with your head, you would have sworn that the smirk looked way too familiar for comfort. “Somehow I knew that would be your answer. Suit yourself then. You have more than one use for us anyway. We weren’t able to capture all the meta’s from the Team that we were supposed to anyway. They know that we have you and whoever wasn’t blown up in the mountain when we set off the bomb will come looking for you. They wouldn’t just leave an innocent civilian to get put in harm’s way anyway.”

You felt sick to your stomach as her words sunk in. The mountain was gone, members of the team had been captured for whatever purpose, and you don’t even know how many more were unable to make it out of the mountain in time. Tigress looked back at you before she left the room as you pulled yourself tighter into a ball. Her eyes looked like they held pity, and regret, and maybe something else, but you didn’t want to think about that.

It was hard to tell the passing of time in you cell. You had no indication of day or night cycles and could only loosely guess based on the meals that were brought by for you to eat. Tigress stopped by your at least once every “day.” From her you were able to draw tidbits of information about your situation. You were currently on Black Manta’s submarine, he was Kaldur’s biological father, Kaldur actually _did_ betray the team, and was subsequently responsible for infiltrating the mountain and placing the bomb there which was from their “partners.”

You kept yourself as guarded as you could around her. You didn’t trust her one bit, no matter how friendly she tried to seem. But it was infuriating how well she seemed to know you, how well she was able to read you. She hadn’t tried to pull any more information about the team from you, and despite her initial threats, she seemed hell-bent on trying to trick you into thinking you could trust her so that you would willingly spill the information you knew.

This went on for some time before she seemed to have disappeared. The only people who would come by now were the regular Manta guards to bring by your food and water. From the bits and pieces, you could gather, it seemed that M’gann had done something to Kaldur on a mission by the team to rescue the captured meta’s. It seemed that they took everyone else to a different facility than where you were being held.

You kept quiet and bid your time. Surely if M’gann was here she would be able to figure out that you were as well and get the both of you free right? Well you sure hoped so at the very least. You were ecstatic when you felt her presence in your mind. She wasn’t there long, but she did assure you that you’d both be getting out of there. You could feel that there was something else she wanted to tell you, but before she could, she had to leave so she could get back to helping fix Kaldur’s mind.

So you waited with a newfound resolve. And your patience was eventually rewarded, however unorthodox it turned out to be. Your chance for escape came at the hands of Artemis’ older sister and father. Their goal was to strike back at Black Manta for killing Artemis but in the chaos, it allowed M’gann to free you from your cell and allow you to escape.

However before you could get too far, you were thrown into a mental landscape with Sportsmaster and Cheshire courtesy of M’gann. You were confused until you saw Tigress turn into Artemis before your very eyes. You were dumbfounded, and it felt like your whole world had been turned on it’s head. All that time spent grieving, all those regrets that you had of things you should have said or done before she left. All those “what if’s” and sleepless nights spent staring into the empty spot next to you on the bed. You were rooted to the spot, stunned into silence as Artemis went on to explain what was happening.

After M’gann released you and the rest of the group, you allowed yourself to be pulled along by M’gann, still trying to process all the new information. She had gotten weeks to process everything, but you had only just found out. Your heart was a hurricane of emotions. You were beyond happy to know that the woman you loved was still alive, but you were also confused, angry and most of all hurt. You were hurt that the person you trusted the most, didn’t trust you enough to tell you about the mission, preferring to let you think that she had died for however long it took for her to complete her mission.

Now it had all made sense. The looks Dick gave you whenever you were at the mountain. They were filled with such pity and regret that it physically hurt for you to look at him. You had thought it was just because he was the one who called Artemis away and that he felt responsible even if he wasn’t the one who had stabbed Artemis. But now you know that it was that and much more. He looked at you that way because it was all his idea in the first place. He was the one who orchestrated everything, and the one who decided to not tell you after Artemis had “died.” You felt sick, you felt hurt, but now you were also livid. Never had you felt such intense hatred and feelings of betrayal then you did now.

You anger snapped you back out of your daze, and you realized you were in one of the armory rooms. M’gann handed you some gear for you to wear, saying that it was the only way to make sure the pressure of being this far below the surface wouldn’t kill you before you could make it back up. You just nodded and stared pulling on the diving suit with jerking movements. M'gann could sense the anger radiating off of you in waves, even without invading your mind. On one hand she understood completely how you felt. A part of her was angry too at having been kept in the dark, but she could only imagine how much worse you felt, considering that you and Artemis were together.

As if your thoughts could summon the devil herself. You tensed as you heard Artemis call out your name. You snapped your head in her direction and she visibly flinched from the intense look held in your eyes. It brought a brief moment of satisfaction to you. Now that you knew who was truly behind the mask the Glamour charm wouldn’t work for the two of you anymore. Now all you could see was Artemis’ face behind the mask.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you but-“

“But _what_? What could you _possibly_ say to make this any better? Were you going to say that it was because I ‘wouldn’t understand’? Do you know how _bullshit_ that sounds? Do you? I was _inconsolable_ when I heard you died. I thought that your last moments were spent hating me, that the last thing we ever did was argue. Do you know what kind of affect that even had on me? Look I know that I was never a hero, that I’m just a civilian and that there’s probably a lot I wouldn’t understand about what it is you guys do or did, but that doesn’t give you _any right_ to keep things like this from me. I’m still _human_ Artemis, I still have feelings.” Once you started you hadn’t been able to stop, tears were now gathering in your eyes and starting to spill down your face.

“Please understand. I brought you here because I knew you wouldn’t make it out of the mountain in time otherwise. I still love you-“

You cut her off with a dry, humorous laugh. “I know I did. But clearly you don’t. If you did, you would have never done this to me.”

“I was just trying to protect you-“

You waved your hand, cutting her off. You didn’t want to hear her excuses. “Don’t come looking for me when this is all over. I won’t be there when you get home.”

Artemis tried to reach out to you, but you slapped her hand away, walking over closer to M’gann, who had a look of sympathy for you written across her face. Artemis went to approach you again but stopped when M’gann shook her head ‘no.’ There was nothing more Artemis could do.

“ **I never want to even hear your name during my life anymore.** ” You spat, your eyes burning with anger even as tears still fell from the corners of your eyes. “You can extend Dick the same courtesy.” With that, you pulled the helmet for your dive gear on and followed M’gann out of the Manta Sub. The whole time you kept your gaze forward, never looking back. The woman inside that ship wasn’t the woman you had fallen in love with. Or maybe she was, and it was just you had never gotten to know the real her in the first place. You weren’t sure which one hurt you the most.


End file.
